Developing and sharing reading resources and teaching methods Erasmus Project

Project Title

Developing and sharing reading resources and teaching methods

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early childhood education and care; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Pedagogy and didactics

Project Summary

Reading is high on the agenda for Ofsted and over the past 5 years, both Rack House and Sandilands have immersed themselves into developing early reading so that children’s achievement is high. Over the course of our previous Erasmus project, the schools have noticed a difference in the pedagogy and resourcing of teaching reading. We are keen to explore the impact of these differences and hope to develop and refine our skills in this area. During their visits to the UK, El Pinar were particularly interested to understand how phonics was taught and its impact on early reading. We are a reflective school and continually strive to improve our teaching and learning of reading in light of the latest research and this has included a focus on how to improve children’s long-term memory of the knowledge provided in school. We were motivated by what we saw at El Pinar during teacher visits over the past two years.

Over the course of this project, we are looking to make reading lessons more exciting and creative. In order to do this, staff not only have to up-skill their own pedagogical skills but also share successful teaching styles and methods. We will do this by planning, preparing and delivering reading lessons on the exchange visits which will provide us with concrete lesson plans that we can continue to use. Secondly we would like to to up skill teachers’ confidence and competence in the early acquisition of language skills. We will give teachers the opportunity to observe and meet with early years practitioners across the schools in order to have a better understanding of the importance of these early communication skills. Finally, we would like to develop the understanding of the link between phonics and reading. Teachers will be given the opportunity to observe other professionals teaching reading and phonics in a variety of different settings. Through the rolling nature of our exchange visits, teachers from both schools will be able to build a positive working relationship which will help to support each other’s continuous professional development.

There are two British schools involved in this exchange, alongside one Spanish school. Each school will send 24 members of staff to the partner school over the period of two years. We will prioritise teaching members of staff for this project as it is their skills we are looking to nurture and develop. Staff will be eligible for this project form across all key stages at the schools involved which will enable knowledge of a range of age groups to be shared.

Teachers will complete a range of activities whilst at the partner school. The exchange will aim to equip teachers with the necessary skills and pedagogy to deliver creative and engaging reading lessons in their schools. The expected result is that teachers will have compiled a range of useful lesson plans and resources that they can use confidently in their own school environment. As well as this, teachers will feel more confident and competent with their skills at delivering reading lessons. The normal delivery of reading lessons will be improved and enhanced by the knowledge gained from the project. Children will receive high quality teaching of reading and will feel able to deliver their own workshops to younger children. During the visits, teachers will be given the opportunity to team teach which will support their professional development and allow them to enhance their skills in a supportive manner. Staff will be timetabled to communicated with their own classes via a video call during their stay abroad. This will build on the children’s cultural capital and enthuse them about their learning.

At the end of this Erasmus+ project, all the partner schools involved will be better equipped with the skills required to teach reading and phonics in the long-term. We will continue to nurture the relationship that we will have built by ongoing communication via eTwinning. This will enable us to continue sharing good practice and resources in the future. Lesson plans will provide the schools with a long-term bank of resources that have been tried and tested across the partner schools. Staff who have been involved in the project will be able to carry the objectives of our project into the future; helping to train members of staff who have not be involved, assisting new staff in future years, and taking their knowledge into new roles they may have in their subsequent careers. All schools will share information, and their findings, with parents and carers. By doing this we will be disseminating our passion for early reading and phonics into the wider community, as well as offering parents and carers ideas with which they can use to further support children’s learning at home.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 62640 Eur

Project Coordinator

Rack House Primary School & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Sandilands Primary School
• COLEGIO EL PINAR S.A.L